Improvements in Gravitational-Wave Sky Localization with Expanded Networks of Interferometers
Abstract
A milestone of multi-messenger astronomy has been achieved with the detection of gravitational waves from a binary neutron star merger accompanied by observations of several associated electromagnetic counterparts. Joint observations can reveal details of the engines that drive the electromagnetic and gravitational-wave emission. However, locating and identify an electromagnetic counterparts to a gravitational-wave event is heavily reliant on localization of the source through gravitational-wave information. We explore the sky localization of a simulated set of neutron star mergers as the worldwide network of gravitational-wave detectors evolves through the next decade, performing the first such study for neutron star -- black hole binary sources. Currently, three detectors are observing with additional detectors in Japan and India expected to become operational in the coming years. With three detectors, we recover a median neutron star -- black hole binary sky localization of 60 deg at the 90\% credible level. As all five detectors become operational, sources can be localized to a median of 11 deg on the sky.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.1801.02674,
title = {Improvements in Gravitational-Wave Sky Localization with Expanded Networks of Interferometers},
author = {Chris Pankow and Eve A. Chase and Scott Coughlin and Michael Zevin and Vassiliki Kalogera},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1801.02674},
year = {2018}
}
Comments
8 pages, 5 figures, accepted in ApJL